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Mark H. Legan

Coatsville, IN | Distinguished Ag Alumni: 2005

Can a young couple who don’t own
land build a successful agricultural
operation? In 1989, Mark and Phyllis
Legan decided to find out. They
approached long-time friends who had
“an old set of hog facilities,” established
a 180-sow herd and started working,
side-by-side.
“I either had to do it or I’d wonder my
whole life if I could,” says Mark Legan,
who was 29 at the time and giving up a
seven-year Extension educator career for
his dream.
Today, the operation employs another
four, owns 1,000 acres of cropland and
700 sows that produce about 15,000
pigs a year.
The Legans mark their success as an
achievement. “We’re a first-generation,
startup farm, and we’ve grown it to a
viable size and, at least to this point,
we’re maintaining it from a financial
standpoint,” Mark says.
Their success, though, has not been at
any cost. “We are part of and proud of
our community,” he says. “We recognize
that pigs stink, so we do what we can to
minimize odor and manage properly.”
They’re also both involved in
community service. Mark’s service
includes his church, Farm Bureau, the
county board of zoning appeals and fair
board, and currently he serves as the
agricultural representative on Indiana’s
Department of Environmental
Management water pollution control
board. “An important part of who we are
and what we do is being involved in the
community,” he says.
Like their business, the Legans share
a common activity that includes their
daughter, Beth. “We like trail riding and
horse camping,” Mark says. “We enjoy
a business with animals, and our
pleasure is with animals as well. We own
quarter horses, and my wife adopted a
mustang. It’s something we do together
as a family.”
“I agree with Abraham Lincoln’s view of
agriculture as a ‘profitable and agreeable
combination of labor and thought.’
Farming gives me the opportunity
for physical as well as mental work.”